Life is Full of Riddles
by knowthescore
Summary: A team of treacherous villians have kidnapped three members of the Glee Club! The only way to rescue them? By taking part in a quest, of course. Follow the remaining members of the Glee Club as they complete challanges and try to save their friends in time. Mainly Brittana. Rated M for language and some slight dark-ish themes.
1. The Moment I said It

**A/N: Hello, everyone. So, this is a story idea I've had floating around in my head for about a month now, and it finally decided it couldn't be kept in there any longer tonight. I hope you enjoy! This will have different songs for every chapter, feel free to listen to them (or not). I was listening to this on repeat for this chapter, it really captures what Santana was feeling this chapter. So, time for disclamers: I do not own the song "The Moment I said It" by Imogen Heap. Although that would be awesome.**

**I was inspired by episodes from Psych and Criminal Minds- those episodes are the Yin and Yang trilogy, from Psych, and dual The Fisher King episodes from Criminal Minds, none of which I own, sadly enough. I also don't own Glee. (I know, you're surprised, I was too.) That being taken care of, enjoy the show!**

* * *

Santana let out a huge sigh of relief. Finally, it was the weekend. The only obligation she had was a short Glee rehearsal, and then she could grab Britts and get her sweet lady kisses on…

Speaking of Brittany and kisses, they had only kissed like four times today, which is not nearly enough Brittany love to fill her daily quota.

Santana glanced at her watch, and saw that Brittany was late for their meet-up time. That was strange. Come to think of it, Santana hadn't actually seen Brittany since fourth period today. She shrugged, assuming her girlfriend had to go ahead to Glee club and would be waiting for her. Stranger things have happened.

As soon as she arrived in the choir room, she could tell something was wrong.

For starters, she was greeted with "Santana! Thank God!" and a hug from Kurt. Which, you know, it's Kurt, so that wasn't too unusual. But Finn seemed even more on edge than usual, running his hand through his hair and repeatedly dialing something on his phone, pressing it to his ear, cursing, and re-dialing.

"Okay. Someone had best tell me what the hell is going on pronto." Santana said in a huff.

The door opened behind her, and Puck came strolling in. "Afternoon, ladies. Has anyone seen my best boy, Artie? We were supposed to meet up at lunch so he could tutor- I mean, uh, so we could smoke cigars together. But he never showed."

"Artie's missing too?" Finn said frantically.

"What the hell do you mean, 'too'? What the fuck is going on, people?" exclaimed Santana, ready to throttle whoever she could get her hands on first for some answers.

"Rachel's been missing since this morning." Finn said eyes darting around the choir room, as if she would be hiding in a corner.

Santana's mouth dropped open. Was it possible that three Glee club members got super sick in one morning? No way.

There was a sudden loud click, and everyone froze, heads ducking instinctively.

Rory was the first one to speak. "Um, fella's. I hate to break it to yeh, but- I believ' that was the lock t'the door."

The group's eyes grew wide, and continued to grow after Puck tried the handle and indeed found them to be locked inside the choir room.

"Well that's just great. I have a mani-pedi scheduled for today." Sugar said.

"Wait, Santana- where is Brittany?" Sam inquired, anxiously wringing his hands together.

"I- I don't know. I saw her this morning, b- but that was a while ago…" she trailed off, blinking back tears. The events caught up to her very suddenly, and she probably would have fallen to the floor if Mike hadn't been right there to catch her.

"Does ANYONE know where Mr. Shue is?" Blaine called from his seat at the piano next to Kurt, once Santana was upright again.

Mercedes began to loudly sing a gospel hymn.

Quinn quickly jumped from her seat, running towards the door.

"I already tried-" Puck trailed off as she ignored and ran past him.

There was an envelope sticking out from under the door.

Quinn grabbed the envelope and walked unsteadily over to the piano, where she opened the letter with trembling hands. She laid the manila envelope on the piano top, where everyone could clearly see "Glee club" spelled out with letters cut from a magazine.

Quinn pulled out a single piece of paper, typed. She cleared her throat and began to read aloud.

"Hello, New Directions. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the game. As you may have noticed, there are a few precious things missing from your midst. Now, I am not an unfair person. You will be allowed to win back your teammates. In order to do this, you must follow my instructions to a T.

First, you must split into two teams, which will be provided for you below. There will be two team captains, one for each team. The team captains are the ones who have each lost someone dear to them. These individuals will have the final say in all matters for their team. Only the two captains may physically handle the clues, but all other teammates may assist in any way they think up. Your missing teammates are being held in three separate locations, to make things more challenging. In order to save them, you must solve every puzzle presented to you, using what meager teamwork skills you have. You solve the tasks; you will save your respective teammates.

After doing so, you will regroup and attempt to save your third teammate. The tasks will be twice as difficult, since you will have twice the people.

While you are two separate teams, you are allowed a very little amount of communication. You may only check in with the other team by cell phone once every half hour, if necessary. You may ask the other team one question that is quest- related per hour. You have twenty four hours to save your first two teammates. You are to have no outside help, of any kind. If you call the police, one student will die. If it takes you a moment over twenty four hours to find them, that student will die. I hope you understand the rules.

Your teacher is unconscious in his office. I almost killed him, but where would the fun in that be? You are allowed to unbind him and look for a message only upon the completion of this letter."

Everyone stopped, glancing longingly at their teacher's door. Quinn shook her head as if to clear her other thoughts, and began reading again at a much faster pace than before.

"The teams are as follow. Team A- Santana Lopez, Captain. Sam Evans, Quinn Fabray, Noah Puckerman, Mike Chang, Sugar Motta. Team B- Finn Hudson, Captain. Blaine Anderson, Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, Tina Cohen-Chang, Rory Flanagan. Good luck in your quest.

Here is the location of the first clue:

Go to the place in McKinley where the most emotional moment for the couple occurred.

One final instruction. For the first half of the challenges, you will be searching for the girlfriend of the captain of your opposite team. You must solve the first half of the challenges before you can meet back at your home base, the choir room, exchange information, and continue forward with the 'correct' person to save. You will find basic things you may need for your tasks in two marked backpacks in your teacher's office next to his body. You are allowed to talk face- to- face with your opponents for this one task, before you meet at the halfway point. The clock start at 3:00pm, and ends exactly twenty four hours later. Let's see who lives and who dies."

As soon as she stopped reading, everyone's heads jerked to look at the clock on the wall. It was 2:40. They had twenty minutes to figure out where their first clue would be.

Sam took the letter from Quinn's shaking hands and folded it, Santana and Finn darted to Mr. Shuester's office, to see if this was some kind of sick joke. Blaine and Tine were two steps behind them, rushing to untie Mr. Shue's gag and the ropes that bound his limbs.

Finn found a letter on Mr. Shuester's chair. He showed it to Santana. It only had four words on it.

"This is very real."

In the envelope next to the letter was a picture of Artie, bound and gagged with his eye black and blue.

Santana flipped over Mr. Shue's chair.

* * *

Finn and Blaine carried Mr. Shuester to the choir room and laid him over a few chairs, hoping he could wake up on his own, as they could not help him.

"I can't believe this is happening." Tina spoke for everyone in the room.

They all looked to the clock again.

"Alright, everyone. As crazy as this will sound, we can't let it get to our heads. We need to focus and come up with a game plan." Quinn said, trying to use her hands to calm the rest of the jumpy teens.

"Screw that! No one takes the Puck master's friends and gets away with it!" Puck said, punching a wall in frustration.

"Puck, Quinn's right," Mike reasoned. "The sooner we figure this out, the faster we can leave here and save Brittany and Rachel."

"Okay. Well, what do you guys think is a big moment in Rachel and I's relationship? There seem to be a lot, at least to me." Finn said, furiously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Finn," Mercedes started, "Did you or did you not propose to that girl this year?"

"Well, yeah, uh, I did, but I thought maybe that was, like, too obvious?"

"Let me make a list of things that are significant and see what we come up with." Kurt said, running to uncap the marker by the whiteboard and neatly making two categories.

They couldn't think of a more significant moment in Finn and Rachel's relationship than when he proposed, so Team A would be starting in the theatre, which is where Finn proposed.

"Okay, now let's focus on Brittany and Santana. We know that they spent most of their times together in the cheerios locker room. I think that is an excellent place to start." Kurt proposed.

"Okay, that seems reasonable. What do you think, San?" Quinn asked, turning to Santana.

"….Santana?" came Sam's voice. Santana continued to ignore them, focusing her gaze on the spot it hadn't moved from since getting back from Mr. Shue's office, on the piano's leg.

They all realized at the same moment that Santana uncharacteristically had not spoken a single word since before Quinn read the letter.

Sam walked to Santana, kneeling at her feet. He softly put a hand just above her kneecap. The action caused Santana to jolt out of her seat, alarmed. Frantic eyes soon sought out green ones, and he could see how troubled she was through them, even if she didn't show it all on her face.

"S- Sam." She stuttered. "They… they've got her. They've got my Britt. A- And now, I can't even look f- for her, but _he _can? Of all people, why him? M- My baby… Britt…"

She was so broken. He had no clue how to fix her, so he did the only thing he could think of, and held her close.

She instantly clung to his shirt, sobs raking through her chest and bouncing around his own. Quinn came up and put an arm on Santana's back, rubbing soothing circle until the whimpers ceased.

The other Glee club members were decidedly looking the other way, to give her a moment to collect herself, and she felt a surge of gratitude for her friends.

"Okay, Kurt, to answer your question, I think that the locker rooms are as good a spot as any." Santana shrugged, steadily regaining confidence. Kurt nodded and circled the option on the whiteboard. He glanced at the clock again, triggering a chain reaction of all the other heads in the room. There were three minutes left.

Santana decided this would be an excellent time for a one- on- one with Finn. Pulling him aside, she took a calming breath, running her hand through her hair twice before beginning.

"Look, Finn." She said. "The only thing I want to be doing at this moment is saving Brittany. No offense, but Brittany is my priority."

"And Rachel is mine." Finn started. Santana stopped him by holding up a hand.

"And although our concerns are obviously elsewhere right now, I promise that I will do whatever I can to help you in your quest, and hope you'll help in ours. I promise I will work tirelessly to save Rachel, and solve those first twelve clues. But the only way I can do that is if I know that you will be doing the same for Britt. Do I have your word?" Santana held out her hand for Finn to shake, which he did moments later.

"Of course. Please try, I really don't know what I'd do without Rachel." He said, almost softly.

"And Brittany is the light and color of my world; please don't help take that away. I guess I'll see you in twelve, and talk to you twice an hour. Hope your phone is charged, Frankenteen." She smirked at him, earning a small smile back before walking to where her group had gathered. She caught Kurt's eye on the way, and they managed to send each other looks of "Please save her" and "You know I will" by the time she had crossed the choir room. Almost three seconds after Santana joined them, the bells in the school chimed, signaling the start of a new hour and the start to their quest to save their friends.

The two teams darted out the door and towards opposite ends of the school.

**Zero Hours.**

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**A/N: Oh gosh! What's going to happen? How will they ever solve all those clues in time? Can they save Brittany and Rachel in time to save Artie? AND WILL SUGAR MAKE HER NAIL APPOINTMENT!? **

**Let me know your thoughts, and if I should continue this or not. :) **

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Fly

**A/N: Hi guys! So, I'm really glad to see that people seem to think my story's dandy. :) I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've had some crazy personal stuff going on, the least of which is starting college and work again. I shall try to update this more often. Thank you for being so patient. (And to the readers of my other story, I'm working hard on an update for you guys!) On with the chapter!**

**Quick disclaimer: I totally don't own the song used for this chapter, 'Fly' by Ludovico Einaudi. It's a really gorgeous song.**

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Chapter Two 

Mike held the door and Santana ushered everyone into the theatre, snapping her fingers to get them to hurry. There simply wasn't time to meander from one clue to the next. She had everyone split up into sections of the theatre and comb for anything that looked remotely like a clue or it could be related to Rachel. After ten minutes of intense searching, Sugar voiced what everyone was thinking. "I'm pretty sure we would have found something by now."

"Sugar's right, it's not here. I can't believe this is happening." Santana sighed, rubbing her temples. "Where the hell else could it be?"

"Yeah, well, _some_ people don't have one central location where every important conversation in their relationship happens." Puck said, rolling his eyes.

Santana sharply looked up. "What did you just say?"

"What? I'm just saying, the Cheerio lockers were like totally predictable." Puck shrugged.

"Fuck. Fucking fuck of a fuck." Santana muttered, punching one hand with the other in frustration.

"What the hell is your problem?" Quinn said almost violently. Her fingers unconsciously twitched toward her stomach.

Santana looked at her in anguish. "I gave them the wrong location, too. Dammit. The first place I told her I loved her in public, and meant it. Our first kiss in public- everything- was at our _lockers._ Like, our normal lockers, Q."

She quickly pulled out her phone and began scrolling through her contacts for Finn's number.

Sam observed the action and quickly stepped into action, slamming her phone closed before she could hit 'send'.

"What the hell, Sam?" Santana spat, rounding on him angrily.

"Santana, chill! In case you forgot, we're only allowed to contact them every half an hour. If you had've called them, Rachel would have been killed." Sam defended, throwing his hands up in surrender to her.

Santana stared at her phone, shaken by what she had almost just done. She looked to Sam helplessly.

"This is so freaking fucked up." She said, looking at him, as if he had the answers.

"I know, Santana. The only thing we can do is play his sick, twisted game." He replied, shuddering. "We can't have anything happen to the others." Santana shook her head, agreeing sadly.

"Hang on." Quinn said suddenly. "Finn proposed to Rachel the same day Mr. Shue proposed to Ms. Pillsbury, but Rachel didn't accept his proposal at first."

"How do you know that?" Sugar asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Rachel told me." she answered, shrugging. "She obviously accepted his proposal sometime after that."

"Well, the first time I remember seeing her wear her engagement ring was when we performed for the Warblers at the end of Michael week." Everyone turned to stare at Sugar, bemused. "What? It's major bling; did you expect me not to notice it? She was rockin' a fresh new manicure, too" she finished, looking wistfully in the distance.

"That's right! Rachel said yes in the choir room!" Quinn explained excitedly, remembering the details now.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Mike asked.

* * *

As they were running down the hallway, Santana yelled out to make sure someone was keeping track of the times for when they should call and talk to Finn. Sam called back that he was on it "like butter on toast."

They skid into the choir room, immediately spotting the envelope on top of the piano. Puck muttered angrily "I can't believe it! He was just here? We must've just freaking missed him!" Quinn touched his bicep reassuringly, and Santana quickly shot him an understanding, frustrated look, and tore open the envelope and read it out loud.

"In marble walls as white as milk,

Lined with skin as soft as silk,

Within a fountain crystal clear,

A golden apple does appear.

No doors are there to this stronghold-

Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.

Solve the riddle, and the answer will lead you to your next clue."

"Um, okay. Okay, let's work this out." Santana said, shuffling through the backpack that was still over her shoulders from Mr. Shue's office for a pad and pen.

"Okay. So, it's something that you can break into, but it doesn't have any doors." Santana repeated, jotting the thought down.

"Is it… like, a tower? If it has marble walls and no door…" reasoned Puck, scratching his head.

"That's actually pretty smart, Noah." Quinn states approvingly. Puck smiles sheepishly.

"Okay…" he said, still clearly trying to stay in Quinn's favor; "Um, this may sound crazy, but is the tower underwater? Because it says "within a fountain crystal clear". Maybe it's talking about one of those fish bowl decorations?"

Quinn simply raised an eyebrow, considering. It wasn't a terrible guess.

"Skin as soft as silk… thieves steal the gold…" Sam thinks aloud, eyes squeezed shut tightly. They fly open less than a moment later. "Um… gold, soft skin, marble towers… they're not talking about Rapunzel, are they?"

"That could totally make sense." Sugar says, nodding.

"No it couldn't." Santana says sharply. All five other heads turn to look at her questioningly. "No, seriously," she explains, "That might make sense for Britt, but this is Rachel we're talking about. Tangled seems like a really obscure reference for Rachel, if it is one."

"She's right." Mike pipes up. "The Rapunzel- or even the tower thing- it fits for part of it, but not the whole riddle. Riddles work so that once you know the answer, the question makes total sense."

"So… we're definitely giving up the idea of it being an underwater secret tower?" Puck says sadly, totally bummed out.

Santana stroked her jaw, pondering. "Is it a baby? Like, the white walls could be a crib… maybe this guy's taking about a kidnapping?"

"But what does that have to do with Rachel? She's not preggo, is she?" Sugar inquired. Quinn answered with a quick shake of her head. "She definitely would have told me."

"Since when are you and Berry close?" Puck spits.

Quinn glances at him, concerned and surprised.

"A baby…" Mike mumbled. Santana and Sam turned to him, grateful someone was still trying to figure the problem out. "White walls with no doors, lined with skin. Thieves _break_ in and steal the gold… not just normal gold, a golden apple." Mike pinches the skin at the bridge of his nose.

"Does… it have anything to do with King Midas?" Sam asked tentatively.

Mike and Santana shook their heads; it was doubtful.

"Um… I remember reading somewhere about golden apples… I'm pretty sure it was in one of the Chronicles of Narnia?" Santana squinted thoughtfully at the sheet music still sitting on the piano from yesterday's rehearsal.

Sam looked at her as if he had never seen her before. "How do you know about Narnia?" he asked breathlessly.

"Um, I read it to Britts. You know, ah, when we were younger." Santana shuffled from side to side, hoping Sam couldn't read minds. She had, if fact, read it to Brittany only a month or so ago.

Mike's eyebrows were still furrowed, and looked like he was running through the riddle in his head, so Santana turned her attention back to him. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts away, and glanced up at Santana, eyes clearing rapidly.

"I've got it. It makes sense now…" he trailed off.

"It's an egg." He whispered. Santana's mouth dropped open.

"That makes complete sense! You're awesome, man!" Sam shouts in jubilee, clapping Mike on the back. "But…" he said, his smile fading, "What on earth does that have to do with Rachel? Isn't she a vegan? She wouldn't eat eggs."

Puck sits up at this. "I sometimes call Rachel a 'hot Jewish omelet.' I have ever since we were sophomores. I… I don't really remember why, though." He finished dejectedly.

"Wait, Puck, that's it!" Quinn shouted. "In our sophomore year- do you guys remember when Rachel was dating Jesse St. James?" Sam and Sugar looked puzzled, but Santana and Mike's eyes widened in recognition. "He broke up with her by turning her into a human omelet! He and the rest of Vocal Adrenaline threw eggs at her in the parking lot!"

"Yes! You guys did awesomely, Quinn and Mike!" Santana praised, throwing the supplies in the backpack and tossing it back over her shoulder. "Okay, let's go, parking lot, stat!"

* * *

It took a few minutes to figure that the next clue might be on Rachel's car. And sure enough, that's where the next envelope was. This time, it was taped to a shoe box.

Santana very carefully took the envelope off the box, counted to three, and threw the lid off the shoe box. Luckily, there wasn't a snake in it and nothing came popping out or anything, so the group peered over the edge cautiously. Nestled in the center of the box was a bird's nest, with an intricate, ornately carved wooden egg lay in its confines.

Santana pulled it out, studying it curiously.

"What is it?" Sugar inquired.

"It looks like one of those fancy jewel eggs from, like, Russia." Santana answered, turning it over in her hands.

"Okay, okay, let's focus, guys. Let's worry about the mystery egg later. San, what does the clue say?" Quinn asked, bringing the focus back.

Santana carefully handed the egg to Quinn, and the box with the nest to Puck, as she opened the second clue.

"The music stopped, and then she died. What am I?"

"Wait, seriously? That's all it says?" said Mike, bewildered.

"What the hell are we supposed to divine from that?" Puck snorted angrily.

"Maybe if we solve the riddle, the answer will so obviously relate to Rachel that we'll know where to go next." Sugar stated sagely.

Santana raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay…" Quinn mused, looking at Sugar strangely. "Um, anyway- I heard about a lady who blindfolded herself before tightrope walking between buildings. An orchestra played a tune for her and stopped when she finished, signaling she could take the blindfold off. The conductor was sick one day, and the substitute didn't know the rule. When they stopped, the woman figured she was safe, stepped to the side and fell to her death."

Realizing she had bewildered everyone, she quickly backtracked with "They talk about everything in those birthing classes." Puck nods his head in agreement, making a turtle face.

"Okay. That's kind of obscure, Quinn, but good guess." Santana looked at her friend warmly.

"Hey, what about one of those jack-in-the-boxes? That would make sense, right?" Sam asked.

"Oh! Rachel collected things like that when we were little. She would always bring them to temple. Hers had a ballerina on top, though, not a clown." Puck nodded, thoughtful.

Santana looked at him with wide eyes. "Puck, do you mean she collected _music boxes_?"

"Yeah. Must be that, then." He said, still confused why Santana was harping on this.

"That's totally the next clue! A music box!" Santana chattered excitedly.

"Santana!" Sam yelled, "Time for you to call Finn!"

Santana whipped out her phone for the second time, frantically pressing the buttons to connect her phone to Finn's. He picked up after the second ring.

"It's not the theatre!" he said at the same time as she yelled "It's our normal lockers!"

"Wait, you figured out we sent you the wrong way, too?" Santana inquired.

"Yeah. Luckily we had Mercedes on our team, who heard you guys talking there a few times. Do you have a question for me?" Finn said all in one breath.

"Yes. Where does Rachel go to get the music boxes she collects from?"

"Um… the flea market downtown. My turn- who is Brittany's favorite Disney Prince?"

"Wait, are you serious? That's your question?" Santana said skeptically.

"Yeah, I don't really get it, either. But Kurt says this is definitely what we need to know." Santana could almost hear him shrugging.

"It's Prince Phillip, from Sleeping Beauty. She always thought he was really brave and strong to break out of those chains to save the princess." She blushed, remembering Brittany had said that she thought Santana would do that and more in order to save her. She was right. Santana really would do anything for her.

She hung up with Finn, squared her shoulders, and turned back to the group.

"Well, pack everything up. We're going to the flea market."

"Thank God," Sugar remarked, "I'm sure they sell nail polish there."

Sugar was demoted to the trunk.

**One Hour.**

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**A/N: Weeeee, second chapter! Okay, time to correct an error I found while reading over chapter one- there will be twelve clues given in total in order to find both Brittany and Rachel. The first _six _for Rachel will be solved by Santana'a team, and then they will take over for the last six for Britt, and vice-versa. There will be twenty four clues they need to solve to save Artie. Okay. Hope that clears things up. :)**

**Let me know what you think of this chapter! And leave any suggestions and/or crazy scenarios you can think of the team might get themselves into, maybe I'll incorporate them, who knows... ;)**

**Thank you for R&R!**


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